Half-Marathon Devil’s Food Cake

Something new for my blog–my first recipe!

After I finished with my first half-marathon, I quickly saw from my Garmin that the 13.1 mile-run had earned me over 1,300 calories.  Being a Weight Watchers member, I knew that the real moment of truth would be when I plugged those 136 minutes of running into my eTools activity points calculator, and I was right–I earned a whopping 19 points for that run!  (As a comparison, in my current “weight loss mode,” I get 26 points in a day!)  I wanted to whip up a quick boxed cake, but I only had banana flavor, and dude…I’d already eaten my fill of bananas on Sunday. (They almost always give out free bananas at races because the extra potassium is supposed to help keep you from cramping up. Or something.)

I love to bake, though I don’t often make cakes from scratch, mostly because I’m lazy.  But on Sunday, scratch was my only option, so I scoured the cupboards and scraped the bottom of the sugar bowl to come up with the ingredients for this cake.  I used a recipe from my Better Homes and Gardens New Baking Book (which is now 15 years old and probably not new anymore), and it turned out well…not too sweet and very chocolaty.

Of course, only chocolate frosting would do for this cake, and I used a recipe from the same book.  I was less fond of their buttercream chocolate frosting–it was heavy on the powdered sugar and when I tasted it, I felt like I was just eating smooth powdered sugar. 🙁  So I tweaked it by adding some Hershey’s syrup (didn’t cut it) and then I melted a piece of Ghiradelli 72% chocolate and added it (better!).

The resulting frosted cake turned out quite yummy, and the total points (not including the syrup or Ghiradelli, which I don’t think made much of a difference anyway) ended up being 8 points for 1/12 of the cake (a good-sized slice) and 6 points for 1/12 of the frosting.   I added some Breyer’s fat free vanilla ice cream (2 points for half a cup), a quick shot of Redi-whip (0 points for 2 tbsp) and a drizzle of Hershey’s syrup (1 tsp is also 0 points).

I had no designs on making this a Weight-Watchers friendly cake, and those points were definitely not light.  But as a half-marathon treat, it turned out just perfect!

Devil’s Food Cake

2 ¼  cups all-purpose flour

½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 ½ tsp baking soda

½ cup shortening

1 ¾ cups sugar

1 tsp vanilla

3 eggs

1 ⅓ cups cold water

1. Grease and lightly flour two 9×1 1/2 inch cake pans or grease one 13x9x2-ich pan.  Set pan(s) aside.  Stir together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.
2. In a large mixing bowl, beat shortening with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds.  Add sugar and vanilla; beat until well-combined.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each. Add flour mixture and water alternately to beaten mixture, beating on low speed after each addition just until combined.  Pour batter into prepared pan(s).
3. Bake in a 350° oven for 35-40 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean.  Cool layer cakes in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes.  Remove from pans.  Cool thoroughly on wire racks.  Or, place 13×9-inch cake pan on a wire rack and cool thoroughly.  Frost with chocolate butter cream frosting or other desired frosting.

If you’re feeling fancy (like me!), and you have some leftover chocolate squares, use a potato peeler to make some chocolate curls for the top.  Hint: let the chocolate sit at room temperature for a moment, or even just hold it in your hand for a moment (inside the wrapper) to soften it a bit.  Makes it easier to get the “curl.”

Chocolate Butter Cream Frosting

Note: The original version was very sweet to me; I felt like I was just eating smooth powdered sugar. I love me some chocolate, and I like my chocolate frosting to taste like chocolate, so I tried adding a few additions.  I won’t say they came out spectacular, but they did help, so I included the additions here, marked with asterisks below.

⅓ cup butter (softened)

4 cups sifted powdered sugar (years of cake decorating has taught me they are serious when they tell you to sift it!)

½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

¼ cup milk, plus extra for consistency

1 ½ tsp vanilla

1 tsp Hershey’s syrup (optional)*

1 square (.375 ounce) Ghiradelli 72% cocoa chocolate (or other dark chocolate type) (optional)*

In a large mixing bowl, beat butter until fluffy. Gradually add the cocoa and 2 cups of the powdered sugar, beating well.  Slowly beat in 1/4 cup of milk and vanilla.

Gradually add remaining powdered sugar, beating until combined.  If necessary, beat in a little additional milk to make frosting that is easy to spread.

Note:  if you make this cake with this frosting and cut it into 12 slices (which are actually pretty good-sized slices in my opinion), each slice is worth 14 points.  Add a half cup of fat free ice cream, a dollop of Redi-whip, and a drizzle of Hershey’s syrup, and you’ve got yourself a 16-point party! 😉